Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders took precious time from his 2020 presidential campaign to sit down with New York rapper Cardi B at a Michigan nail salon, where the two multimillionaires discussed how they can help poor people.
Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar, got straight to the point in a very short clip of the conversation posted to her Instagram on Tuesday, a video dated Aug. 9.
“Like, what are we going to do about wages in America?” the 26-year-old from the South Bronx asked Sanders.
“Like for example, like me, as a New Yorker, not now, but you know, when I was not famous, I just felt like no matter how many jobs I get, I wasn’t able to make ends meet. Like, I wasn’t able to pay my rent, get transportation and eat,” the stripper turned reality TV star turned rapper said.
Sanders clearly appreciated the softball set up.
“That is an excellent and important question,” he said, “because right now we have tens of millions of people who are earning what I consider to be starvation wages. Can you imagine somebody today earning $9 an hour?”
In New York City, $9 an hour hardly covers parking, but in other less expensive places in the country, like North Dakota or Louisiana, it stretches much further.
“It don’t make no sense,” Cardi B said.
“No it doesn’t,” Sanders confirmed. “How do you pay your rent? How do you pay for food? How do you pay for transportation?”
“Right,” the rapper agreed.
“You can’t,” Sanders said. “And if you have a child …”
“Yes, and my thing is that, you know, certain people like to brag that there is more jobs now in America,” Cardi B continued. “But it’s like, yeah, there’s an increase of jobs given, but what are they paying in these jobs? They practically paying nothing.”
“You got it,” Sanders said. “That is exactly the issue. So you can get a job, but maybe you’re going to have to work two or three jobs.”
“Exactly,” Cardi B said.
The whole conversation is designed to lead to Sanders’ pitch for a $15 federal minimum wage, which many critics contend will drive up the cost of products and services across the country. Others predict employers will lay off workers to compensate for the loss, and the government-mandated wages will accelerate automation that’s expected to put millions of people out of work.
The focus on wages is particularly interesting considering Cardi B’s penchant for promoting her self-made status as one of the top female rappers in America, a journey that began in the Highbridge neighborhood of the South Bronx.
The triple platinum selling artist prides herself on her underprivileged upbringing and evolution, from teenage gang member, to stripper and college student, to reality television star and eventually a Grammy Award-winning musician.
The interview is also perplexing considering the rapper’s history of defending her lavish spending habits, with bills running roughly $300,000 a month to maintain her “gangsta bitch” image.
“My bills is like $300,000, $250,000 every single month and I try to put it cheaper but it’s just, it’s not,” she said, according to Capital Xtra.
And while she wants the government to require businesses pay employees $15 an hour, she’s not a big fan of people telling her how to spend her own money, or the IRS dipping into her income.
“You know what I hate I hate when celebrities do something very extravagant but something very luxurious, there’s people on the comments say ‘you could have donated that’ or ‘we going backwards you could’ve done this or that with your money.’ Who are they to tell people whatta do with their hard-working ass money.”
“… Do you know that artists, celebrities … the IRS, our of every cheque that you make they automatically take 45% of our cheque. That means in order to spend $500K you gotta make at least a million,” she complained in February.
Months later, she’s helping Sanders promote his plan to force folks to pay others more of their “hard-working ass money.”
“Legislation that I’ve introduced, which was passed in the House recently, U.S. House, would raise that minimum wage to $15 an hour,” Sanders told Cardi B. “And what we also have to do is make it easier for workers to join unions so they can sit down and engage in collective bargaining and earn a decent living.”
The video was “paid for by Bernie 2020.”
It’s unclear how much, if any, went to Cardi B.
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